The emphasis here is on the line of the hat, rather than on trimming. Four chapters of 27 are on sewing straw alone. This is supposed to be a textbook, and the problem here for most of us will be that we are not walking into a trade-school workshop with all the equipment, and with a teacher to do demos. An experienced sewer should be able to figure out quite a bit of this. The main thing is experimentation and a willingness to use up materials in the process of making these techniques work. It's learning: you will not get great results the first time unless you are extremely clever with your hands. However, everything is here in very detailed drawings, including the four steps of twisting a wire onto another. Detailed!

While the date may fool many into thinking "flapper cloches," the hats exampled are very suitable for the two fashion periods preceding the Jazz Age. No one tossed their clothes and went hip band and cloche on 1 Jan 1920: it actually doesn't start gaining steam until 1923, and the book was written by a teacher at Pratt who had learned her skills and written her book by 1921. So you will find it very suitable as a basis for styles of the late Victorian and the Edwardian. There is a whole chapter on "Copying French Hats without Measurements" which is wonderful if you're trying to copy something in an old catalog or illustration.